Our final full day at the Tokyo
Disneyland Resort began with Tom’s emergency business issues
(ugh!) that forced us to get a later start. When we finally got out of our
room, we decided to head over to Disneyland briefly to purchase a
collector’s piece we saw the previous day. Since this was our third day,
we were allowed to park-hop, so we then headed back to DisneySea to do
some shopping and experience some of the attractions we previously missed,
as well as those we most enjoyed.

We spent the morning shopping at the virtually empty shops in
Mediterranean Harbor and the American Waterfront. We were a bit surprised
to see the types of items that are marketed to Japanese guests in
comparison to what we’re used to seeing in the U.S. There were very few
apparel items at all—a few different T-shirts for adults, and a bit more
variety in the types of clothing for children and infants.

One of the most popular and varied
items is the gift tin. In Japan, it is customary for travelers
to bring gifts home from their trips, regardless of whether or not the
trip is business-related or personal. An affordable and convenient gift
that serves this purpose is a prepackaged box of food items. These are
available at virtually any retail outlet in Japan: convenience stores,
train station kiosks, department stores, etc. I’m surprised they haven’t
somehow created vending machines through which these tins may be
purchased. In any case, this is probably the most prolific and available
souvenir item at the Tokyo Disney Resort.

There are literally hundreds of different tins available in all
different sizes, containing all different types of food items. They fairly
reasonably priced, too, since they are virtually guaranteed sellers. We
bought quite a few just for the cute or interesting designs—much higher
quality than a lot of the cookie and candy tins you might find in the
candy shops on Main Street in the U.S. A lot of the food items, however,
are not very palatable, and I wouldn’t necessarily count on individuals
to actually enjoy the tastes, unless you buy something somewhat reliable
like chocolate.

The Venetian portion of the
Mediterranean Harbor area

Some other types of widely available
souvenirs include face towels (washcloth-style towels used for
face towels and for napkins in lunches), clear plastic folders used by
schoolchildren, lots of cell phone accessories, vinyl window clings, and
stickers. Pin-trading is not as popular as in the U.S., but a number of
trading-style pins are available, as are buttons and magnets. There was a
lot of cheapo plastic stuff that was not very desirable to us. We also
found it very difficult to find affordable age-appropriate gifts for
infants, toddlers, and preschoolers.

We did find, however, some really neat Italian-themed Mickey Mouse
merchandise in some of the Mediterranean Harbor shops. We also bought some
ceramic flower pots and vases cheerfully painted with images of Pinocchio
characters. There were also a variety of mosaic tiles and coasters,
jewelry, pens, bookmarks, and artsy postcards; all of these were of much
higher quality than what we’re used to seeing at Main Street souvenir
shops in the U.S., and they were actually attractive and interesting.
Shops in the Lost River Delta also had tons of really neat Indy-themed
stuff with hieroglyphic-style symbols that, upon closer inspection, were
really stylized figures of the Fab Five characters. We also found some
neat accent pillows and a 3-foot by 4-foot area rug that is an exact
replica of the Magic Carpet in "Aladdin".

After extensive shopping, we found that the most outrageously priced
items were plush characters, hats, and baby and children’s clothing. The
most affordable items were glasses and cups, stationery and other paper
goods, pens, and pencils. Items that were non-existent as compared to the
U.S. were ready-to-consume snacks (such as lollipops, bags of candy, and
fudge, meant to be consumed immediately rather than given as gifts),
Barbie-type dolls, collectors’ dolls, and toys.

The bridge in the Mediterranean
Harbor area has many buildings on it

Although not as prolific as in the
U.S., there are collectible and limited-edition items
available. We purchased a couple of Tokyo DisneySea grand opening items: a
16" heavy metal model of the Nautilus from "20,000
Leagues Under the Sea" that is complete with working lights and a
working propeller, and a wooden boat steering wheel carved with the Fab
Five characters that commemorates the grand opening of the Tokyo DisneySea
resort on September 4th, 2001. We also purchased a limited edition Steiff
Mickey Mouse dressed in Christopher Columbus-style dress (based on the
statue outside the DisneySea gate) from Hotel MiraCosta’s MickeyAngelo
gift shop.

All in all, the retail experience in Japan, though different than that
in the U.S., yielded some really unique merchandise, with both Japanese
and Disney theming (origami papers, incense, chopsticks, etc.). Just keep
your eyes open, and you might find some really interesting and different
souvenirs.

After a morning of shopping at Tokyo DisneySea, we decided to have
lunch at Zambini Brothers’ Ristorante in Mediterranean Harbor. We
noticed that there were three separate windows for pizza, pasta, and
stew/noodle/soup dishes respectively, with salads, drinks, and desserts
available at all three windows. Not wanting to have to wait in line twice,
we both decided to have pizza: I had Mozzarella and Blue Cheese pizza with
a side of pasta salad, and Tom had Sausage and Mild Pepper Pizza with a
side green salad. Both were excellent, and we agreed this was the best
food we had during our visit.

We then did some more shopping
and rode Sinbad’s Seven Voyages in the Arabian Coast
again, since we enjoyed it so much. We also decided to try a Gyoza Sausage
Bun, available at some outdoor vendors scattered throughout the park.
Every time we passed one of these carts there was a huge line of people
waiting to get one; at one point the line at the cart inside Mysterious
Island was at least 80 people long (shown above)!

We finally passed a cart in the Cape Cod area that didn’t have too
long of a line and tried one; it was like a large dumpling made of rice
dough (like dim sum) with mild sausage inside. I guess this is the
Japanese version of a Hot Pocket sandwich (see below); it was pretty good,
and also fairly affordable, and a good quick, hearty snack to grab between
attractions.

Since all the shows seemed very popular (there were seven different
shows and performance events presented while we were there), we decided to
check out "Encore!" at the American Waterfront, a
theater show with performances of popular Broadway tunes. Narration and
pre-show information was provided in both English and Japanese, but all
the songs were sung in English by western performers.

The performers were good, but the choreography and presentation were
very bland. This was an hour of my life I wish I had back. I don’t know
if it’s good to judge the other shows by this one, but if they are all
of this quality, I wouldn’t waste my time. We don’t particularly enjoy
show-type entertainment anyway, although we might make an effort to see
some of the kiddy-type ones if we had younger children in the group.

We decided we had to ride Journey to the Center of the Earth
again since we loved it so much. All the Fastpasses were gone for the day
(it was 4:15 p.m.), so we entered the standby line (reader boards
indicated a 70 minute wait, although we waited for only 50 minutes). The
park seemed much more crowded than on our first day; we figured that this
was because we were closer to the weekend, and there were also a lot more
school groups at DisneySea on our third day.

The Magic Lamp Theater was missed

It was now nearly time for the
nighttime lagoon show,DisneySea Symphony. I was
cold and tired, and didn’t want to do any more standing or walking in
the cold wind, so I decided to go back to our room and watch it from
there. Meanwhile, Tom stayed in the park to watch the show from the
Fortress Explorations vantage point, right next to the three interactive
cannons.

There were four small floating barges in the harbor which are used for
pyrotechnic and water effects. Mickey "conducts" the effects,
and the Mount Prometheus volcano is also incorporated into the show. The
show was about 10 minutes long and, like the "Encore!" show, was
nothing too spectacular. I guess we’re spoiled since we’ve got
"Fantasmic!" back home.

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